The present invention relates, in general, to a hot formed part, and to a method of making a hot formed part.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
The automobile industry requires a number of manufacturing stages to build a vehicle body, whereby in certain situations hot formed parts of steel with high material strength have to be coupled with connection pieces for a time period during which the connection pieces should be held temporarily captive on the hot formed part while the hot formed part is handled during production of the vehicle body. The temporary fixation of the connection pieces may, for example, be realized with the assistance of clamps or clips. Another example involves the use of flexible tabs. As the hot formed parts have a high material strength, the tabs are, however, difficult to bend so that proposals have been advanced to provide the tabs on a separate cold formed part which is then connected to the hot formed part by spot welding. The temporary fixation of the connection pieces on the hot formed parts is then realized by bending the tabs in a way to conform to the configuration of the connection pieces.
The need to produce added cold formed parts in the manufacturing process of a vehicle body is not only time-consuming but also incurs added costs as a result of parts and tool expenses and manufacturing costs. The overall manufacturing process thus becomes more complicated.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to address prior art shortcomings and to provide a cost-efficient manufacturing process of a vehicle body.